"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." (Titus 2:11-12)
Godliness is of the character of God. The Scriptures declare it to be "profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8)
The character of God cannot be separated from His life. And the life of God is known only in Christ. Christ was good, for "[He] knew no sin." (2 Corinthians 5:21) "[He] did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (1 Peter 2:22)
Yet to the young man who came to Him and called Him "Good Master," He said, "Why do you call me good? none is good save one, even God," (Mark 10:18) thus showing that He himself was God. (See also John 1:1,14) To Philip, who said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us," (John 14:8)
He replied, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." (2 Corinthians 5:19)
Of His work He said, "The Father that dwells in me, He does the works." (John 14:10)
His life, therefore, was in the fullest sense a godly life. It is the life of Christ that saves us: "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)
Not the simple fact that He once lived on earth, but the fact of His now living in us. He is a present Saviour. "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is born of God." (1 John 4:2)
Note well that it does not speak about confessing that Jesus has come or did come in the flesh, but that He is come in the flesh. Through Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, the life also of Jesus is to be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11) that so we may be filled with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
Christ's life on earth was a life of obedience. Said He, "I have kept my Father's commandments." (John 16:10)
Again, "I honor my Father," (John 8:49) and, "I know Him, and keep His saying." (John 8:55)
He was subject to His earthly parents. (Luke 2:51) He came to save life and not to destroy. (Luke 10:56) So far was He from taking that which was not His own, or even from coveting, that He gladly gave up His own, and did not think it a prize to be retained. (Philippians 2:5-7) No guile was in His mouth, for He was the embodiment of truth. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." (John 18:37)
He also kept the Sabbath day, namely the seventh day of the week, the same day that the Pharisees professed to keep. Although they found fault with Him for His acts of mercy on that day, they well knew that He was not violating the Sabbath, but only disregarding their senseless and wicked traditions.
They were constantly on His track seeking for something of which they might accuse Him to the rulers, yet they found nothing; and when at last He was betrayed into their hands, they had to bribe the false witnesses against Him.
It was His custom to attend service on the Sabbath day. (Luke 4:16) As for Sunday, the first day of the week, no one has ever yet been found with the hardihood to claim that He ever paid any more attention to it than to any other working day.
Therefore the life of God, which Christ will live in us if we allow Him, will be a life of obedience to the commandments. There will be manifested in it obedience to parents, truthfulness, reverence, unselfishness, gentleness, together with Sabbath-keeping not merely in form, but in fact.
Since there was no Sunday observance in the life of Christ, it is impossible for Him to put any of it into the lives of His followers. Where that is exhibited in the life, it shows a lack of perfect submission to the life of Christ, although that lack of submission may not be intentional, but may arise from failure to recognize Sabbath-keeping as part of His life.
But someone says, "The keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath was part of Christ's life as a Jew, and we are not saved by Christ as a Jew."
Listen: Jesus himself said, "Salvation is of the Jews." (John 4:22)
His truthfulness, obedience to parents, reverence, gentleness, etc., were also a part of His life as a Jew. Shall we cast them aside? If we do, we shall simply be denying Christ.
Just think what it means to say that we are saved by Christ's life, but not by His life as a Jew. It charges Christ Jesus with having two different lives, that is, of having two characters; with being changeable. Yet when a man is one thing in one place and another thing in another place, he is lightly esteemed. Even so must Christ be held in light esteem by those who think He lived any differently on earth, saving His poverty, than He did or does live in heaven.
No; "[Jesus Christ is] the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)
The life which He lived on earth was the life of God, and with Him there is "no variableness neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
To say that any portion of Christ's earthly life is not necessary for us, is to say that a part of God is of no consequence.
Christ lived on earth to give us a living example of the life of God, so that we may know to what we should submit, that He may live it in us. "He left us an example, that we should follow in His steps." (1 Peter 2:21)
Christ is not divided, (1 Corinthians 1:13) and therefore we must take Him as a whole. When we take Him we shall not at first know all that there is in His life. Indeed we shall never be able to fathom the depths of His character. But we have such confidence in Him that we take Him on trust for all that may be revealed to us in Him, as well as for what we see in Him.
Who will make this complete surrender to Him, that He may fill them with the fullness of His life, and at last bring them to enjoy that life in immortality?--Present Truth, July 13, 1893.